April Jacket Flap-a-Thon

I think I would be more likely to feel like April is gone if the weather would remind me that it's spring. *sigh* Even so, I'm finding I'm reading more now that I've come out of my winter blahs. Except, now I want to be outside digging in the garden. Choices choices.

Violet in Bloom (Amulet Books): "Katie-Rose, Violet, Milla, and Yasaman—four girls with seemingly little in common but their flower names—are nurturing their new friendship and are busy building luvyabunches.com, their very own social-networking site. Their first flower-power task? A doomed campaign to get their school to serve healthier snacks. The Jelly-Yums they champion—soon dubbed “beans of grossness”—taste like candied beets. And that’s just the start of their troubles. A scheming classmate tries to drive a wedge between Katie-Rose and Yasaman, Violet may have been slammed in a secret journal, and poor Milla unintentionally commits hamstercide. It will take all the strength and genuine affection of these pals to weather a particularly stormy week of fifth grade. Bestselling author Lauren Myracle brings her understanding of the weight of fifth-grade dramas to another hilarious and memorable book that preteens will love!"
Everything a jacket flap should be: interesting, giving out plot points without giving away anything, and fun.

Their Eyes Were Watching God (Harper Perennial Modern Classics): "One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, Zora Neale Hurston's beloved 1937 classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose. A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published -- perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature."

Classics are so hard to write a jacket flap for, but I think this one succeeds quite admirably.

Zita the Spacegirl (First Second): "Zita’s life took a cosmic left turn in the blink of an eye. When her best friend is abducted by an alien doomsday cult, Zita leaps to the rescue and finds herself a stranger on a strange planet. Humanoid chickens and neurotic robots are shocking enough as new experiences go, but Zita is even more surprised to find herself taking on the role of intergalactic hero. Before long, aliens in all shapes and sizes don’t even phase her. Neither do ancient prophecies, doomed planets, or even a friendly con man who takes a mysterious interest in Zita’s quest. Zita the Spacegirl is a fun, captivating tale of friendship and redemption from Flight veteran Ben Hatke. It also has more whimsical, eye-catching, Miyazaki-esque monsters than you can shake a stick at."

I think every jacket flap needs to have the words "shake a stick at" in it. End of statement.

Other Books Read This Month
Falling In (audiobook)
Sweet 15
Exile
Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie
Olympians, the Graphic Novels
The Natural History of the Senses
The Last King of Texas
One Hundred Years of Solitude (DNF)
My Unfair Godmother

My Unfair Godmother

by Janette Rallison
ages: 10-14
First sentence: "Dear Professor Goldengill, Thank you for another opportunity to raise my semester grade with an extra credit project."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher

I read the first book in this series, My Fair Godmother, out loud to C about two years ago. In going back and looking at what I wrote, this jumped out at me: "I'm not sure how well this would stand up if I had read it by myself, but I really enjoyed reading it aloud."

It stood out because I didn't read this one out loud to C, and found that it worked just as well as a read as it did as a read-aloud.

My Unfair Godmother is the second book, and while it helps if you've read the first, it's not necessary. The only returning people are Chrissy -- the very lackadaisical, and somewhat incompetent fairy godmother, who has just picked up moonlighting as the tooth fairy since she can't seem to get into the Fairy Godmother University -- and her erstwhile (and somewhat grumpy) assistant Clover, the leprechaun. Everything else is new, though the premise plays out in much the same way.

Tansy Miller has been angry at her father since he and his mother divorced. He's been too busy for her, what with a new family and moving to Arizona from New York and all. So, the fall that she's sent to live with them -- because her mom and younger sister are on tour with a Broadway touring company -- she is not the happiest person around. Of course, that means she falls in with the wrong crowd, mostly to make her dad angry (it works), which culminates with her getting caught red-handed with a can of spray paint and thrown into jail.

The last thing she needs is a fairy godmother. And she really doesn't get one; Chrissy's only a fair godmother, and even though she grants Tansy three wishes, she doesn't exactly deliver them the way Tansy thinks they should be delivered. After bring Robin Hood and the Merry Men forward to our time, Chrissy sends Tansy -- and her father, mother, step-brother, and the police chief's (cute) son -- back to the Middle Ages, where they need to play out the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin.

Rallison puts a twist on the fairy tale by combining it with Robin Hood, and spins them both delightfully. Tansy is a interesting combination of anger and loneliness, a heroine who doesn't want to save the day (or even herself). Underneath all the humor, adventure and, yes, romance, it's really a story about family and loss: learning to forgive and accept the family you've got,even when they disappoint you. And learning to understand, accept and forgive yourself for the bad things that happen in life.

It's fluff, sure, but it's good, enjoyable fluff.

10 Questions For Anne Osterlund

I don't quite remember how I discovered Anne Osterlund, but I do know that I thought Aurelia was a rocking book, and thoroughly loved Academy 7. And interviewing her has been on my wish list for ages now. So, imagine my surprise when she emailed me, and asked if I wanted a copy of Exile (Which is out today! My review here). I jumped at the chance, and thankfully, she was able to take a few moments out from her teaching, writing, imagining, and cat-loving schedule to answer a few questions.

MF: I've always been curious how fantasy writers dream up their worlds. And since this book was about Aurelia discovering her country, what was the inspiration/germ for Tyralt?
AO: Tyralt is where Aurelia lives. It has always been very much as it is, in my head, at least since Robert informed me he was from the frontier in chapter 1. A country with a royal court and a frontier. A traditional monarchy and a modern education system. A vast distance between one corner of the kingdom and another. A history of tradition and a push for enlightenment. All of which lead toward . . . conflict. Which is a dynamic element within a story.

MF: Unlike Aurelia, and even though there's adventure in it, Exile is more about an internal journey on Aurelia's part. Why did you choose to go that route with this book?
AO: Aurelia’s journey begins in the first book, and all her actions stem from the discoveries she makes about herself and her family at the end of book one. Aurelia is about a defining and traumatic moment within her life, but it’s just that—a moment. The time span of the entire book extends for only the length of about a week and half. Exile covers a much longer period in time, allowing the characters to learn a great deal more about each other, the kingdom, and most importantly, themselves.

MF: Do you have a favorite character or scene in Exile?
AO: I’m not allowed to have favorite characters. It would start a war within my head. As for scenes, ...hmm. I’m rather fond of all the frontier scenes. Probably because that is when Aurelia is the most happy. Though I love watching her and Robert fight during the first two chapters, which is rather hypocritical of me.

MF: What is the trickiest part about writing Exile?
AO: The forest. Or rather getting out of the forest. Aurelia, Robert, and I were stuck there forever This is largely Robert’s fault. He was too concerned about looking weak during the early drafts, which led to all kinds of revising, when what he really needed to do was just suck it up and let Aurelia rescue him. Though to be fair, this is also the part of the book where Aurelia has the worst time emotionally, and that is probably what really makes the forest the most difficult.

MF: The easiest?
AO: Again, the frontier scenes always read swiftly for me. I think because Aurelia enjoys herself so much while she’s there.

MF: Since you've written in both genres, what are the differences/similarities between writing fantasy and science fiction?
AO: LOL! That is a huge question. There are plenty of differences within writing genres (word choice and research being two of the greatest), but ultimately, in my opinion, any young adult novel comes down to knowing the characters. Aurelia, Academy 7, and Exile are all character driven. The settings and the worlds change, but the depiction of those worlds is always through the characters’ eyes. My books all star two teenagers (one guy/one girl), and those characters undergo the same challenges as any other teens. They have minds of their own. They make their own decisions and their own mistakes. They express an entire range of emotions. They get in trouble and change their minds and have the ability to grow. They don’t know everything. And they don’t know they don’t know everything. And there is always hope.

MF: You teach sixth grade, right? Does your teaching influence your writing? Why or why not?
AO: The greatest influence teaching has had on my writing career is via the school visit and presentation aspect. I have a great deal of experience setting a meaningful objective, getting my audience’s attention, and holding that attention for the duration of a lesson or presentation. Sixth graders do not tolerate boredom.

MF: Since you also have a full-time job, when do you find the time/space to write?
AO: I write all day every day I am not teaching or presenting. With the rare exception of family trips and major holidays.

MF: Do you have any special place you like writing?
AO: On the back of a half-wild stallion sprinting across the Tyralian frontier. Or in an interplanetary plane flipped upside down and scaling the side of a frozen waterfall. No, honestly I write on a couch, surrounded by papers, pencils, a thesaurus, and a dictionary. It doesn’t matter where you are when you write. It’s about where your imagination is.

MF: Who or what inspires you to write?
AO: The characters are the inspiration. Always the characters. I first met Aurelia, the heroine of Aurelia and Exile, several years ago, on a yellow notepad, when she was complaining about being stuck at a boring party with an itching ankle. Aerin from Academy 7 was removing a headband, standing in front of a mirror, and contemplating whether she could scrub away the past five years to become someone completely different. And Salva, the hero of my upcoming fourth book, was checking out the pretty girl at church. All of these characters required change. None of them could remain as they were. And change is the ultimate force within a story.
The first two scenes mentioned above are both posted on my website. Here for Aurelia and here for Aerin.

MF: What's the last book you read and loved? And why did you love it?
AO: I just finished Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles, the second book in her Perfect Chemistry series. I’ve loved both these books because they pull the reader through the story. And also, I admit, because I’m always afraid they will turn out to be too much like my upcoming fourth book. And they never do.

MF: If you don't mind telling us, what can we expect next from you?(More Aerin and Dane? Or more Aurelia and Robert? Or something completely different?)
AO: Salvation is a young adult contemporary novel scheduled for release next April. Here’s the pitch.

SALVA (Salvador) RESENDEZ is at god a Liberty High School. Quarterback. National Honor Society Member. ASB Vice President. His Mexican immigrant family has high expectations, and Salva is prepared to fulfill them—mostly—but what he really wants is to blend in with his friends and enjoy his senior year. A goal bound for destruction when an asinine requirement forces him into AP English with the teacher from hell. And with walking disaster area, BETH COURANT. Who may be his salvation. But what neither Salva nor Beth knows is that the cost of salvation is mortality.

I would love to write more about Aurelia, Robert, Aerin, and Dane! But Salvation is definitely the priority at them moment. Currently I’m wrestling my way through the first edited draft. And let me tell you, Salva definitely rivals Aurelia for stubbornness. Check out my second blog post if you don’t believe me.

MF: Thanks, Anne, for sharing your time!
AO: Thank you so much, Melissa! I hope you and your readers will come visit my website and my blog. And of course, I hope you all enjoy Aurelia and Robert’s expedition in Exile!

The Last King of Texas

by Rick Riordan
ages: adult
First sentence: "Dr. David Mitchell waved me toward the dead professor's chair."
Support your local independent bookstore; buy it there!

My in-person book group is reading The Red Pyramid for their selection this month. Since I've long since devoured everything Riordan's written for kids, and since I usually include the sentence "he's also written a mystery series for adults but I've never read them" while talking about Riordan, I figured the least I could do is find out what the whole mystery series for adults is about.

Our erstwhile hero is Dr. Jackson Navarre, Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, also known as "Tres" (Spanish for three, not "Tray"; a mistake I was making). Tres is also a private investigator. In fact, that's the reason he moved back to San Antonio, after years in the Bay Area. He's offered a position at UTSA, in part because of his P.I. job: the man who had the position right before Tres ended up being shot to death in his house, after receiving several death threats via letter. Then, in the middle of the interview, a pipe bomb is delivered, exploding shortly thereafter. Of course Tres takes the job. It's a series of twists and turns from there, as we explore the gritty underbelly of 1990s San Antonio. This is the third in the series (the first published in hardback, and the first my library has. I love Riordan, but not enough to hunt down the first two Tres Navarre books), but works just fine as an introduction to the world of Tres. There are a lot of characters to juggle, but Riordan manages that beautifully; Tres is easy to like, as are many of the other characters. Even the baddies are well-drawn, and have intriguing and complex motivations for their actions.

It's vintage Riordan, to say the least. Not as funny as his books for children, but still quick-witted and engaging. It's quite the homage to San Antonio; even though it's rough and edgy, there's an undercurrent of love and admiration for Riordan's hometown. Probably most importantly, it's brilliantly plotted (which is something that Riordan always does well); there's enough information in the book to make the mystery solvable if you follow the clues (I didn't call it!), but there's also enough twists and turns to make the book exciting. Sure, it's clunky in spots, but it's also a page turner from the point a pipe bomb explodes into the first chapter until the final reveal at the end.

Which it to say: it's Percy Jackson awesomeness for adults.

Sunday Salon: Authors from A to Z

It's been forever and a year since I've done a Weekly Geeks, but this one, on this Easter Sunday (Happy Easter! I hope you're enjoying the day.), sounded right up my alley. It's a list of authors -- whatever category you choose -- in ABC order.

I'm picking my favorites (with the book I really liked) from the past few years:

A - Kathi Appelt (Keeper)
B - Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon/The Demon's Covenant)
C - Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising series)
D - Frances O'Roark Dowell (Falling Up, among others)
E - Stephen Edmond (Happyface)
F - Catherine Fisher (Incarceron/Sapphique)
G - Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere)
H - Shannon Hale (Forest Born)
I - Eva Ibbotson (A Song for Summer)
J - Diana Wynne Jones (Howl's Moving Castle)
K - Steve Kluger (My Most Excellent Year)
L - Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon)
M - Hilary McKay (Wishing for Tomorrow)
N - An Na (A Step from Heaven)
O - Anne Osterlund (Exile)
P - Terry Pratchett (I Shall Wear Midnight)
Q -
R - Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero)
S - Francisco X. Stork (Marcelo in the Real World)
T - Megan Whalen Turner (A Conspiracy of Kings)
U -
V - Claire Vanderpool (Moon Over Manifest)
W - Scott Westerfeld (Leviathan)
X -
Y - Lisa Yee (Bobby the Brave)
Z -

I'm only missing four letters in the past two years; not bad. What are some of your favorites?

One Hundred Years of Solitude

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
ages: adult
First sentence: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distand afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

The short story? Magical realism and I just don't get along. I don't know what it is; you'd think with all the fantasy books I read that I'd love the subtle of play between reality and magic, but it just doesn't work for me. I find it grating and somewhat annoying and confusing and just plain irritating.

Also: I really don't trust books that were part of the Oprah Book Club.

The long story? I've heard about Gabriel Garcia Marquez for years and years, and always figured, since he was so highly acclaimed, that I ought to read him. So, when I finally got the opportunity, I was quite interested. And yet, it didn't take me long to realize that this book is completely incomprehensible (to me). It was flipping between time and memory and the plot was utterly confusing. I wasn't getting much out of the lives of the characters.

So, halfway through when I couldn't see a way out of this muddle that Marquez had gotten me into, I bailed. Without a backward glance.

Because magical realism and I are just not friends. At all.

Zita the Spacegirl

by Ben Hatke
ages: 9+ (though I read it aloud to my 5 year old)
First sentence: "Finders keepers!"
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

What kid doesn't want to go on an adventure? Excitement! Different worlds! Being the hero!

I'm not sure if Zita ever felt that way, but she got thrown into it one day, when she and her friend Joseph discovered a device with a button. Zita must be one of those curious types: she pushed the button... which opened a portal, and both she and Joseph got pulled through.

And thus the adventure begins. Joseph gets captured by an evil-looking tentacled beast, and Zita goes after him to save him. While he's been tied up by the Scriptorians (on this unnamed planet), being expected to save the world from certain doom -- an asteroid is headed their way -- Zita experiences the world, meeting all kinds of unusual friends: a giant mouse, a robot named One who has delusions of grandeur; a nervous robot named Robby, who's been hiding in the wastes; a beast named Strong Strong; and a man with magical tools named Piper. All who help her get to the Scriptorians' castle to rescue Joseph.

It's quite the adventure, one with clever drawings and story. It's funny and sweet and adventurous. We couldn't get enough of it; my girls and I were completely captivated are already clamoring for the next installment.

You can't get better than that, I think.

Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie

by Jordan Sonnenblick
ages: 11+
First sentence: "There's a beautiful girl to my left, another to my right."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

This is a cancer book. Just to get that out of the way.

Steven is in eighth grade and on his way to being a wicked-good jazz drummer (being one of two eighth graders in the All-City Jazz Band). He has had a crush on Renee since third grade, and she still doesn't know he exists. And his best friend, Annette, has been acting a little weird lately.

Steven also has a younger brother. Jeffrey is five, and annoying in the way five year olds can be. And while Steven doesn't mind his younger brother, he often feels like he's competing with Jeffrey for his parent's affection. And who can win out against a very cute five-year-old?

Steven starts the year complaining about everything, but in October, things change. That's when Jeffrey's diagnosed with leukemia, and Steven's -- well, the entire family's, really -- whole world is turned upside down. It's heartbreaking and tough to deal with, as we witness this crumbling. And yet, it's not a downer of a book. It's funny, it's sweet, it's endearing. Steven's a good kid, and while he struggles and is resentful, he means well. By the end you've grown to love both him, and Jeffrey (whom you couldn't help but love), and understand and empathize with them. It's an excellent example of showing: while we get Steven's perspective, we're never pummeled over the head with anything.

Which makes it the best kind of cancer book, I think.

A Natural History of the Senses

by Diane Ackerman

ages: adult
First sentence: "Nothing is more memorable than a smell."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Going into this book, I didn't quite know what I'd be getting from a "natural history" of the senses. It's such a broad term; and how does one actually provide a history of something that's been part of the human experience since the beginning of time?

What I got was one part history, one part science, and one part poetry. Ackerman divided the book into five sections, one for each of the senses. She started with smell, then worked through touch, taste, hearing and vision. I had a hard time at first, getting used to the style of the book, which seemed haphazard and disorganized. It seemed like it was a series of short essays cobbled together without much sense and flow. But, after the smell section -- which was the worst for the disjointedness -- it settled into a rhythm, a little bit of poetic description, a bit of science (most of which I wondered if still was "correct", since the book was written in 1990), a bit of social history. Much of it was fascinating. Her descriptions (passages of which I would love to copy down, but are much, much too long), especially about how the senses work in relationships, were elegant and poetic. But, in the end, it wasn't enough. I wanted something less thrown together, something that flowed more, something that was less disjointed.

Because when it was good, it was very good. I just wanted more goodness.

Sunday Salon: Geeky Goodness

I spent all of yesterday deep cleaning my kitchen, and I'm beat. Literally; I can barely move this morning. Then I dreamed last night that I was hanging out in Amsterdam with John Green, which only makes me want to throw a dinner party for all my favorite geeky, nerdy, fun, weird famous people (including, but not limited to: John Green, Mo Willems, Maureen Johnson and, of course, Nathan Fillion). Which means, today's Salon needs to be nerdy-geeky weird. Right? (Check this out, first. Just so we're all on the same page.)

Hank Green's vlogbrothers video this week was 31 Nerd Jokes, some of which are had me spitting milk through my nose:


And Thursday, I think it was, Hubby came to me and said I needed to watch something that will change my life. (I asked if it had Nathan Fillion in it.) He blogged about it here... and while it doesn't have Nathan Fillion, I am quite excited for this. It really is worth the 10 minutes.


Also, if you haven't read Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue envelopes yet, and you have an e-reader, you're in luck! She's offering it for two weeks for FREE. See here for details.

And I know it's not geeky, but I was amused by this. I'm currently reading one of Rick Riordan's adult mysteries, The Last King of Texas. It's not bad, as far as books go, but there was this one line that got me curious: "Tell any San Antonian, "Meet me at the Boots," and they'll instantly know what you mean." Not being from San Antonio, I didn't. So I Googled it, and got this.


You gotta love Texas.

I'm sure there's more geeky stuff out there, but I'm currently distracted by listening to this interview with Mo Willems. Have a great Sunday!

Audiobook: Falling In

by Frances O'Roark Dowell
ages: 9+
Read by Jessica Almasy
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I love me some Frances O'Roark Dowell. I first discovered her a couple years ago when Shooting the Moon was nominated for a Cybils. I absolutely fell in love with her books, her writing style, her storytelling. There's something simple about her books, and yet her stories are actually quite sophisticated, with subtle dark undertones.

This book is pretty much all that I've come to expect from Dowell. It was simple: the story of a somewhat neglected girl -- Isabel Bean, age 10 -- with an aura of the otherworldly about her. She doesn't really have friends, and while she's not a bad student or child, she doesn't really seem to fit in at all. Her mother isn't very motherly, and Isabel drowns that neglect in a sea of books, especially fairy tales.

It's all fine and good, I suppose, until one day when Isabel hears this buzz coming from the floor of her school. She gets sent to the principal's office (because hearing a buzz isn't exactly normal school behavior), and on the way there gets sidetracked and fell into a closet into the nurse's office.

Into where, you may ask?

Well, into another world. One which, in Jessica Almasy's capable hands, was slightly British. Definitely old-fashioned, and most definitely fairy-tale-ish. With a magic, of sorts, a witch that's terrorizing the county of five villages. Isabel has to help defeat the witch, of course, but it's not really about that. It's about making friends, and learning to be a friend. Simple, yet elegant.

And Almasy's narration was spot-on. Her voice was slightly irritating to begin with, but after a while it became Isabel. And it helped that she had different voices for the characters, ones in which you could picture the character just from their voice. It's also a book that worked better as an audio -- there were lots of interruptions by the narrator, making the book more of a story to be heard rather than read. I'm not sure I would have liked it as much as I did had I read it. (Though it is Frances O'Roark Dowell.) But it was a fabulous listen.

Sweet 15

by Emily Adler and Alex Echevarria
ages: 13+
First sentence: "Here's how it went down, the beginning of The End."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.

Destiny Lozada is about to turn 15. And because she's the daughter of Puerto Ricans, this means she must have a quinceañera. (You know what that is, right? The coming-of-age party/religious rite for Latina girls? Good.) Well, her mother really, really wants to throw Destiny a huge party, even though they really can't afford it. And Destiny's older sister, America, is thoroughly against that idea. Destiny, who doesn't want to rock any boats, is trapped in the middle, watching her sister rant, her mother rack up costs, and her father try and work enough to pay for them.

She doesn't want any of it. But no one's asking her.

She spends the first few weeks of high school being buffeted this way and that by her mother, her best friend Omar (who Destiny's mother has recruited), and her sister. It's frustrating and humiliating, all made worse by the crush she has on a former friend's cousin. Thankfully, even though the book meanders a bit, it finally comes to a head, in which everything turns out both a little bit predictably and just as it should.

The best thing about this book, however, was not the writing (okay) or the plotting (a bit on the slow side). It was the fact that in these pages there is a stable, hardworking immigrant family, with men who are neither into gangs or drugs, who hold jobs and work hard and are smart. It's so nice to see Latin@s being portrayed that way; too often they are reduced to stereotypes: the women work hard and love their lazy, good-for-nothing, gang member men. Bah! I loved the family relationship here, for even though Mama and America were overbearing and not listening to Destiny, it's quite evident that they love her and really do want what's best. And her father, even though he doesn't play an active role in the conflict, is a quiet pillar of strength and love. It's amazing.

And that's a lovely, lovely thing to see.

Olympians, the Graphic Novels

by George O'Connor
Zeus: King of the Gods
First sentence: "In the time before time, there was nothing, Kaos."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess
First sentence: "My sisters and I are the Moirae, also known as the Fates."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I don't remember where I saw these two reviewed, but it sounded like an interesting approach to the stories of Greek mythology. So, as part of the Once Upon a Time challenge, I thought I'd give them a try.

To start with, these are beautifully drawn books. O'Connor imagines the gods in a way that's both human and divine. They are larger than life -- especially the Titans -- but also very accessible. Zeus tells the story of the Titans, and Kronos (and I still can't type these names without thinking of Percy Jackson!) as well as how Zeus came to be. The books aren't interested in thinking about motivation of why they do things. It's just the Gods, and they do things because they do.

Athena was the more interesting of the two books, however. Perhaps because Athena's story is more interesting than Zeus's? The book is framed as the Fates telling stories about Athena, including her origin story, which was fascinating (okay, it's not one that I knew), as well as one about her fight with Pallas, the Aegis that she wears, and her quarrel with Arachne. No book on Athena would be complete without the Perseus and Medusa story, as well. The stories succinct without being choppy, and while it doesn't give Athena a well-rounded personality, it does explain many of her different personality traits.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the books are the fact sheets at the back. They tell, playing card style, facts about the gods (which day of the week, which planet, Greek and Roman names, etc.). Fascinating stuff. O'Connor also provides a reading list, places to go to find out more information about the gods as well as Greek and Roman culture.

Well worth the time.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston
ages: adult
First sentence: "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I really didn't know what to expect when I started this book. Honestly. I hadn't heard much about it, and I only knew Zora Hurston from Zora and Me which I read last fall.

So, my impressions...

Shall I get the negative over with? The dialect dialogue drove me nuts. Random sample: "Dat's jealousy and malice. Some uh dem very mens wants tuh do whut dey claim deys skeered Tea Cake is doin'." Not too bad on it's own, but pages and pages of it pulled me out of the flow of the novel. Every single time. I do have a couple prejudices when going into novels, and dialect is one of them. (Present tense in the other.) However, I am proud of myself: I kept going in spite of being pulled out of the novel.

Mostly because the writing (when it was in English and not Southern) was so gorgeous. Random sample:

"So, gradually, she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush. The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again. So she put something in there to represent the spirit like a Virgin Mary image in a church. The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired."

So simple and yet so evocative. The whole book -- the narration, anyway -- was like that. Simply gorgeous, poetic. And the story about a woman coming into her own, finding her own path to happiness in the face of expectations and overbearing/abusive husbands. It's a testament to the resilience of women, the inner strength a woman has when faced with Life.

And for that, the book is more than worth reading.

Violet in Bloom

by Lauren Myracle
ages: 10+
First sentence: "You're invited to a Super Fabulous Flower Power Powwow!"
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy sent by the publisher

I turned around and read this one as soon as I finished Luv Ya Bunches; I really did want to see what Katie-Rose, Yasaman, Camilla and Violet were up to next. It's the second week of school, and even though they've all declared themselves FFFs (flower friends forever), there's still a few bumps that they need to iron out.

Katie-Rose is having problems because another girl, Natalia, is making the moves on Yasaman. Part of it is because of Yasaman's idea to get rid of the Cheezy D'Lites as a snack food. Natalia wants to be a part of it, and Katie-Rose is having sharing and space issues. It's not pretty, to say the least.

Milla like-likes Max, and is tentatively reaching out to a friendship/whatever fifth graders do with him. Until there is a Tragic Incident which threatens to derail everything. And even though the book suggests it's about Violet, she really only plays a marginal role: she stands up for the slightly odd Cyril when he's being picked on by the evil Modessa (of whom there is an interesting insight near the end of the book), and she faces seeing her mom in the mental hospital. I was expecting more from Violet, but it really seemed to be Katie-Rose's book.

That said, it was still fluffy fifth-grade fun. Myracle has the age group, especially girls, down-pat, which made the characters (this is me as a mom speaking) quite delightful. And, again, she puts enough in the books to make them more timeless and less pop-culture, while maintaining the pop-culture appeal for the kids. It's a good series.

Exile

by Anne Osterlund
ages: 13+
First sentence: "Hoofbeats thundered from behind."
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Release date: April 28, 2011
Review copy sent to me by the author

There will be spoilers for Aurelia. You have been forewarned.

(And if you haven't read Aurelia yet, you really should.)

When we left our fair heroine and -- her, um, companion/protector -- Robert, had just survived an assassination attempt. In the wake of that, and of Aurelia being unmade the heir of the kingdom, Robert, Aurelia and several guards are sent off on a tour of the Kingdom of Tyralt. Little did they know that this would be the most dangerous thing they've ever done. They have to fight off another assassination attempt, make their way through some of the most difficult terrain, and perhaps most daunting, figure out their feelings for each other.

Anne Osterlund has a knack for writing sweeping stories, ones that are full of suspense, action and romance. Ones that keep you engaged in the book, wondering what's going to happen next, rooting for the characters all the way. All the best elements of Aurelia are there: she's still a kick-butt heroine, passionate and determined; he's still a swoon-worthy partner. Osterlund knows how to write action, and how to take readers on some pretty wild twists and turns, and yet grounds it all in some pretty intense ideas of freedom and loyalty.

The question is, then: what's going to happen next to our fair duo?

Sunday Salon: The Battle of the Kids' Books, Week 3

I could go through the nitty gritty of this week's competition, but it all comes down to this:


Keeper

vs.


Ring of Solomon

vs.


Conspiracy of Kings

I've never read ALL the books in the SLJ's Battle of the Kids' Books before, and so I'm actually quite giddy about this. And I'm going to try my hand at predicting. All three books have their strengths: Keeper is deliciously understated, Kings is full of twists and turns and is like reading historical fiction, and Ring of Solomon is, well, Bartimaeus. All are engaging and amazing and unputdownable. But which one will Richard Peck choose?

Keeper has the whole middle grade thing going for it. The writing is gorgeous, the story compelling and moving. It's subtle and magical, without really being an outright fantasy book.

Which is also something you can say about Conspiracy: it reads like historical fiction. No matter that these places don't really exist. And while Gen isn't really a major presence in the book, Sophos is an absolutely winning main character. And the twists and turns; Turner knows about plotting. The real problem here is whether or not this book can stand on its own. (Full disclaimer: I voted for it in the Undead Poll.)

Ring of Solomon is really the only true fantasy book: djinns, magic, unbelievable circumstances. And Bartimaeus. Snarky, fun, endearing Bartimaeus. He's knocking down his competition right and left, and everyone who previously hasn't read or even heard of him is falling over in total adoration. He totally deserves every bit of it, too.

So, which one will take it?

I have suspicions that Peck will choose Keeper, but I'm going to go with Ring of Solomon. (Go Bartimaeus!) We'll find out tomorrow!